Thought-leaders contributing to this volume include Piyush Gupta, Laurence Liew, Lee Tzu Yang, Geh Min, and more!This volume comprises essays by Singapore thought-leaders republished from various issues of the annual journal of the National University of Singapore Society called Commentary.The chapters have been curated to provide historical review of Singapore's journey in economic, ecological and social development. Centred around the theme of sustainability, together, they provide a rich account of how the issues of environmental management and human resource development were pursued in tandem with strategic industrial policy from the early days of independence.They also convey how the current plans to take the country into the age of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 of digitisation and artificial intelligence, to continue to be the hub of hubs in the new economy, cannot and must not be at the expense of ecological health and a strong sense of stakeholdership among Singaporeans. The issues about immigration in the face of demographic decline, the choices in the sources of energy to power the economy in a carbon-constrained world, and the competition that a small state must continue to respond to as new growth sectors reshape the global economy are tackled by the eminent thought-leaders who contributed the chapters.While this is not new material, the reader will be surprised by how the debates about the policy choices and the expressions regarding what is important for Singapore and Singaporeans to achieve true and enduring national wealth remain fresh in this highly accessible edited book.

These volumes comprise of essays by Singapore thought-leaders republished from various issues of the annual journal of the National University of Singapore Society called Commentary.

Thought-leaders contributing to this volume include Piyush Gupta, Laurence Liew, Lee Tzu Yang, Geh Min, and more!This volume comprises essays by Singapore thought-leaders republished from various issues of the annual journal of the National University of Singapore Society called Commentary.The chapters have been curated to provide historical review of Singapore's journey in economic, ecological and social development. Centred around the theme of sustainability, together, they provide a rich account of how the issues of environmental management and human resource development were pursued in tandem with strategic industrial policy from the early days of independence.They also convey how the current plans to take the country into the age of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 of digitisation and artificial intelligence, to continue to be the hub of hubs in the new economy, cannot and must not be at the expense of ecological health and a strong sense of stakeholdership among Singaporeans. The issues about immigration in the face of demographic decline, the choices in the sources of energy to power the economy in a carbon-constrained world, and the competition that a small state must continue to respond to as new growth sectors reshape the global economy are tackled by the eminent thought-leaders who contributed the chapters.While this is not new material, the reader will be surprised by how the debates about the policy choices and the expressions regarding what is important for Singapore and Singaporeans to achieve true and enduring national wealth remain fresh in this highly accessible edited book.

The environment is one of the defining issues of our times, and it is closely linked to questions and dilemmas surrounding economic development. Southeast Asia is one of the world’s most economically and demographically dynamic regions, and it is also one in which a host of environmental issues raise themselves. The Routledge Handbook of the Environment in Southeast Asia is a collection of 30 chapters dealing with the most significant scholarly debates in this rapidly growing field of study. Structured in four main parts, it gives a comprehensive regional overview of, and insight into, the environment in Southeast Asia. Wide-ranging and balanced, this handbook promotes scholarly understanding of how environmental issues are dealt with from diverse theoretical perspectives. It offers a detailed empirical understanding of the myriad environmental problems and challenges faced in Southeast Asia. This is the first publication of its kind in this field; a helpful companion for a global audience and for scholars of Southeast Asian studies from a variety of disciplines.

This book presents select proceedings of the Indian Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Conference (IGGEC-21). Various topics covered in this book include geotechnical engineering, earthquake geotechnical engineering, geoenvironmental engineering, ground improvement, transportation geotechnics, waste management and sustainable engineering. The book will be a valuable reference for researchers and professionals in the discipline of civil, materials, geoenvironmental engineering, landfills, hydrogeology, ground improvement and earthquake geotechnical engineering.

This volume uncovers the interaction between people and the elements in very different British colonies throughout the world. Providing a rich overview of socio-environmental change, driven by imperial forces, this study examines a key global historical process.

Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence? Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories. Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including: - China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overwhelm the West? - Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority? - What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions? Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.

Winner of the Asia Society's Bernard Schwartz 2012 Book Award The battles of yesterday were fought over land. Those of today are over energy. But the battles of tomorrow may be over water. Nowhere is that danger greater than in water-distressed Asia. Water stress is set to become Asia’s defining crisis of the twenty-first century, creating obstacles to continued rapid economic growth, stoking interstate tensions over shared resources, exacerbating long-time territorial disputes, and imposing further hardships on the poor. Asia is home to many of the world's great rivers and lakes, but its huge population and exploding economic and agricultural demand for water make it the most water-scarce continent on a per capita basis. Many of Asia’s water sources cross national boundaries, and as less and less water is available, international tensions will rise. The potential for conflict is further underscored by China’s unrivaled global status as the source of transboundary river flows to the largest number of countries, ranging from India and Vietnam to Russia and Kazakhstan; yet a fast-rising China has declined to enter into water-sharing or cooperative treaties with these states, even as it taps the resources of international rivers. Water: Asia’s New Battleground is a pioneering study of Asia’s murky water politics and the relationships between fresh water, peace, and security. In this unique and highly readable book, Brahma Chellaney expertly paints a larger picture of water across Asia, highlights the security implications of resource-linked territorial disputes, and proposes real strategies to avoid conflict and more equitably share Asia’s water resources.